The Score: What 3rd Party Collaborations Should Nintendo Invest In?

In this week’s installment of The Score, we hear your thoughts Hyrule Warriors, and whether it will live up to previous entries in the Zelda franchise.

In addition, we ask for your thoughts on third party collaborations, specifically where you would like to see Nintendo make some investments with 3rd parties. Obviously, Nintendo has been making more of an effort to make partnerships with third parties recently, beginning with Platinum with The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2, then moving on to make the Sonic:Lost World partnership, and most recently Nintendo’s partnership concerning Hyrule Warriors with Tecmo Koei. What other partnerships would you like to see Nintendo make?

The Score: Episode 32

The Score: What 3rd Party Collaborations Should Nintendo Invest In?

To answer this question, head to the comments section below, or to our forums, Twitter, or even our Facebook page, and have your say!

Last week, we asked you…

The Score: Will Hyrule Warriors Live Up to Previous Zelda Games?

Head below and find out what you had to say.

Your Responses

Since its more dynasty warrior style gameplay its hard to say.

-Joseph Nintenjoe Brinson

The quality we seen Zelda games have such a major contrast compared to the Dynasty Warrior games. Dynasty Warrior games have just been extremely poor, and not offered anything new since it was first released for the ps2. Just a very bad decision.

-Jayson Flores

Well, no, I don”t even think they are comparable. Too different. besides its more of a stand-alone title anyway, it doesn’t really need to live up to it. It will probably just be another good dynasty warriors game with a Zelda skin.

-Anomandaris

You can’t really compare it, it’s much different than a traditional Zelda.

-Alex Sullivan

That’s kind of a dumb question, considering it’s not going to be a “Zelda game”, and no one should EXPECT it to be a “Zelda game”. It’s a Warriors game. It’ll be fine, but anyone expecting actual ZELDA, is an idiot. Expect it to be what it is, enjoy it for what it is, and you’ll be okay.

-Jesse Moak

Probably.

-Matt Zupon

You can’t compare, as it’s not a traditional Zelda game… It’s just a spin off…

-John Allison

Its not Zelda games, its a Dynasty Warriors game that use the zelda IP.

The question should be will it be a good Dynasty Warriors game? I think so given its a collaboration with Nintendo and they have incredibly high standards.

-Wanderlei

It definitely looks interesting. Maybe it will be successful enough to push the core Zelda series itself in positive directions. We could see Hyrule Field populated by larger swarms of enemies and have larger, more widespread attacks to deal with them. Also, that fire rod or whatever it was looked like something I’d want to beat Ganon over the face with.

-Alienfish

I think it’s unfair to judge a game after a set of standards it is not aiming to meet.

-Andreas Sunde

This is going to be the first built from the ground up Zelda related game for the Wii U. I’m not looking at the Wind Waker HD game since that is a Re-release of a GameCube game. While the more enemies on screen is a Trademark of the Dynasty Warriors franchise, I’m hoping it’s also a sign of things to come for the Main Zelda U game in Development strictly for the Wii U. I’m hoping for more enemies to appear on screen at one time in the Main Zelda U game. I’m also hoping that Nintendo will lengthen the Light World/ Dark World sizes by Double if not Triple the size.

That said, Hyrule Warriors will be a Welcome edition to my games Collection as I’m fond of buying the Occasional Dynasty Warriors game to begin with and even bought Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper for the Wii U as well. And if this hack/slash game sells well (700,000 units) I’m sure we’ll see even more games like this in the Wii Us future as well. Still hoping this opens the door for the Wii U to get a version of Capcoms Stryder game towards the end of 2014…

-David K

I don’t think it will live up to previous Zelda games, but that isn’t the aim of this game.

This appears to be a different game(Dynasty Warriors), using the Zelda IP. The real question is will this be a great Dynasty Warriors game? I’m not sure. I’ve never played a Dynasty Warriors game. I know they are trying to release a new type of game with a fan favorite franchise, but it seems to be that the Fire Emblem IP may have been better suited for this type of game.

I do find it strange Nintendo would lend the Zelda IP to a 3rd party publisher before letting 3rd parties take a crack at IPs like Starfox, F-Zero, Earthbound, etc.

-ThunderUp12

Nope. It’s like comparing the Crossbow training to the Zelda games. It’ll be fun. But it won’t provide a Zelda experience.

-Christopher Arnold

No, the game is made by tecmo and the quality seen in the warrior games will be the same quality you will get from this game. Zelda wont make the developers magically better.

-KurtGermer

Not even close. Not saying it’ll be a mediocre game or anything but it’s not touching the quality of most Zelda games

-ImaduddinSiddiqui

There’s a good chance that Hyrule Warriors will be a worthy Legend of Zelda spin-off. I’ll list three reasons for my optimism.

1) It’s clear from the trailer than Hyrule Warriors incorporates core elements of Zelda’s battle system – like locking onto large enemies, blocking with the shield, and performing Link’s usual acrobatics. This could really take the Dynasty Warriors game engine up a notch by addressing the complaint that ground level combat is mindless and droll.

2) Nintendo might be using Hyrule Warriors to tell the stories that the traditional Legend of Zelda adventure format isn’t well suited to tell. There are two epic wars listed in the Hyrule Historia timeline, the Great Triforce War before Ocarina of Time and the war before Skyward Sword, legends that would be better told using a war game. Keep in mind that Dynasty Warriors and it’s various spin-offs are all very devoted to lore. There’s no reason to think that this game won’t be canonical.

3) This could be the game that finally makes the gamepad relevant. Imagine if Hyrule Warriors has a ZombiU style versus mode… 1 to 4 players use wiimotes to play the Heroes of Light in traditional Warriors fashion, facing them is the Prince of Darkness who uses the gamepad to send hordes of weak minions around in RTS style and who can, occasionally, possess stronger minions to directly confront the Heroes of Light.

-Kaihaku

Staff Responses

Probably not. Dynasty Warriors isn’t known to be that amazing of a franchise, only an incredibly repetitive one. I’m sure that putting Link into the title won’t just make the whole gameplay better. I do have some hope left, though, that figuring out how to defeat each enemy may take some strategy and puzzle-solving.

*looks at trailer again*

Nope! It’s going to be mindless killing! At least it’ll sell in Japan…

-Elia (Paleselan)

More details are needed of course, but multiplayer + online multiplayer + Nintendo overseeing the project would equal in success. We have confirmed 1 of the 3, so if we can get the other 2, it’s a sure win.

-Shawn Long (SirNintendo)

No. I could stop there, but I do think they’re is a chance the game could be fun… But no way will it live up to the main franchise. That is ok though.

-Tyson Gifford (TheMightyMe)

I don’t think it’s trying to from what I’ve seen. That’s like asking whether Mario Party will ever live up to the 3D Mario series. Hyrule Warriors is just a different genre, likely created to hype up Zelda Wii U. I’m sure it will be fun though and definitely has the potential to be receiving more care than the traditional dynasty warriors series.

-Omar T (Acesonnall)

Don’t forget to answer this week’s question below in the comments, via Twitter, Facebook or you can even head to the forums!

Elia Pales owns pretty much every single product Nintendo puts out, and due to his impulsive tendencies, he also tends to purchase every gaming product put out in general. When not gaming, he’s probably running cross country or writing. He makes sure to take regular gaming breaks, though.

The games I would like to see by Nintendo and other 3rd parties are:
The Mysterious Muramasa Castle by Plantium Games
Star Tropics by Ubisoft dev team that produced "Beyond Good & Evil"
Mach Rider by Kojma or Rockstar Studios
Kid Icracus by Capcom or MercurySteam
Nintendo vs Capcom All Stars fighting game
Xenoblade Chronicles x Final Fantasy
Mario Kart vs Sonic Racing game
Custom Robo vs Virtual On
"X" vs Zone of the Enders or Lost Planet

gamer5555 Alienfish That's the exact reason I'd like to see Nintendo get involved. There wouldn't be any rough edges with them around so when the game finally hit the market it would probably get reviewed a whole lot better causing more people to buy it and a Wii U. Leave it to Ubi to flesh out that multiplayer though.

I wanted to think about this a little before posting. For 3rd Party Collaborations:

Super Metroid X Ghosts and Goblins with Capcom. Samus could lose her memory upon crash landing on his planet and Sir Arthur would think Samus a Demon until he delivers the near fatal blow casting off her Armor and Revealing herself to him.

Nintendo should fund:

Vanquish 2. A Cult hit that sold low volumes on PS360.

Prey 2.

Level-5 RPG. You fill in the blanks with this one.

Just Cause X Bionic Commando. Sure it's fun to take a military co by yourself but what if you could do it with a friend??

Dragon Quest vs Kingdom Hearts. Mix and match foes and friends and see what you can come up with.

I wanted to think about this a little before posting. For 3rd Party Collaborations:
Super Metroid X Ghosts and Goblins with Capcom. Samus could lose her memory upon crash landing on his planet and Sir Arthur would think Samus a Demon until he delivers the near fatal blow casting off her Armor and Revealing herself to him.
Nintendo should fund:
Vanquish 2. A Cult hit that sold low volumes on PS360.
Prey 2.
Level-5 RPG. You fill in the blanks with this one.
Just Cause X Bionic Commando. Sure it's fun to take a military co by yourself but what if you could do it with a friend??
Dragon Quest vs Kingdom Hearts. Mix and match foes and friends and see what you can come up with.
Front Mission vs Advance Wars. Same answer as above.
Bayonetta vs Dante..........
Super Smash Bros vs Mortal Kombat vs Dead or Alive. Just because I want to see Mario's Fatality :) :) :) :) :)
Ghost Trick vs Geist... High jinks, pure high jinks.
and as a small personal favor, put Regginator in Super Smash Bros as an Easter Eggs complete with my Body is Ready Power-Up finisher...

A collaboration with Ubisoft to make a Nintendo funded and guided sequel to ZombiU. The great funding and support from Nintendo mixed with the developers who created the best survival horror game of the last five years (imo) could do some seriously awesome things. Also they should mix in a bunch of cool Nintendo Easter Eggs. Everyone loves Nintendo Easter Eggs.

A collaboration with Ubisoft to make a Nintendo funded and guided sequel to ZombiU. The great funding and support from Nintendo mixed with the developers who created the best survival horror game of the last five years (imo) could do some seriously awesome things. Also they should mix in a bunch of cool Nintendo Easter Eggs. Everyone loves Nintendo Easter Eggs.

I would like to see more exclusives from SEGA.
Outrun, Sega GT, Sega Rally, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter, MadWorld ect...
I would also like to see exclusives from Capcom and Namco.
Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Final Fight, Saturday Night Slam Masters, Ridge Racer, ect...

I've just about finished playing my first ever Kingdom Hearts game; Dream Drop Distance. I can't decide if the gameplay is under-developed or just extremely flexible.

Hybridizing that gameplay with worlds that each independently revamp major elements, sorta "Nintendolanding" the base gameplay might work. Done right it could be just the tool to turn KH fans into Nintendo fans.

You could have Nintendo villains and enemies appearing in Disney's Worlds, and suggest that Kingdom Hearts was falling apart and collapsing onto external universes.

Also give Sora a hero's breakdown as he accidentally unleashes Phazon, Demise, Dry-Bones Giga-Bowser, Dark Matter, Andross, and that lot into his home universe.

Plus I kinda want to use Sora using his Keyblade on the Master Sword while trying to get home as an excuse for why Ganon broke out of his prison when destiny should have kept him locked up until a Link was ready to appear. Plus having Fi merge with the keyblade and transform it for every Nintendo World would be cool.

I'd also love to see a Star Fox game made by Bioware but they're a western developer so I doubt it'll ever happen.

I've just about finished playing my first ever Kingdom Hearts game; Dream Drop Distance. I can't decide if the gameplay is under-developed or just extremely flexible.
Hybridizing that gameplay with worlds that each independently revamp major elements, sorta "Nintendolanding" the base gameplay might work. Done right it could be just the tool to turn KH fans into Nintendo fans.
You could have Nintendo villains and enemies appearing in Disney's Worlds, and suggest that Kingdom Hearts was falling apart and collapsing onto external universes.
Plus you could totally give Sora a hero's breakdown as he accidentally unleashes Phazon, Demise, Dry-Bones Giga-Bowser, Dark Matter, Andross, and that lot into his home universe.
Plus I kinda want to use Sora using his Keyblade on the Master Sword while trying to get home as an excuse for why Ganon broke out of his prison when destiny should have kept him locked up until a Link was ready to appear. Plus having Fi merge with the keyblade and transform it for every Nintendo World would be cool.
I'd also love to see a Star Fox game made by Bioware but they're a western developer so I doubt it'll ever happen.

Seiken Densetsu collab, Kid Icaus Collab. Another Kid Icarus game for WiiU in a new genre mash up of 3D brawler and shoot em up free roaming adventure game.
More advance wars and battalion wars. Gooden Sun X Breath of Fire or Suikoden.
Something with Seiken Densetsu
DarkStalkers X Nintendo would be great too.

WayForward: 2D Mario "indie" extreme platformer. 2D Legend of Zelda game like Zelda II in gameplay style but much more dynamic.
Renegade Kid: Zelda III-The Adventure of Link II. A retro 2D direct sequel to Zelda II The Adventure of Link for 3DS featuring the background/foreground jumping of Mutant Mudds and energetic hookshot swinging.
WayForward or Renegade Kid: A new 2D Metroid.
Object Vision Software: A simple but highly polished Metroid game fashioned after the concept of Aya and the Cubes of Light.
SEGA Valkyria Chronicles Team: A Beautiful Legend of Zelda game in the same style as Valkyria and with the huge world size of Skyrim.
Frontier: sequel to Wind Waker in the style of LostWinds with a Zelda II style overworld map for travelling.
Double Fine: Legend of Zelda adventure game. Lots of good comedy and fun like the first three Monkey Island games.
Two Tribes: Puzzle room Zelda game like Toki Tori in retro style goodness.
DICE: Donkey Kong City, pseudo realistic DK in realistic city free-running and parkouring about on sky scrapers etc., surfing traffic to find and save Candy Kong. 3rd person but basically like Mirror's Edge and open world.
Sumo Digital: Nintendo World Racing. A separate racer from the Mario Kart series. A racer that celebrates everything Nintendo just like Super Smash Bros, and how Sonic Racing celebrates Sega.
Koei: True next-gen Uncharted Waters for Wii U. Huge world, lots of exploration and discovery, etc. Everything fans of Uncharted Waters have dreamt about and deserved for a long time.
Let somebody make a Star Fox game be it Retro, Bungie, Bioware, Platinum, somebody...just make sure to have Hajime Hirasawa and the rest from the original composing team do the music.
Shin'en or Sumo Digital: New F-Zero.
I'd like to see Nintendo work with Fumito Ueda, thatgamecompany, Amanita Design, cHair,
Hal Lab: Legend of Zelda Golf.
Bungie: Link's Crossbow Training 2. Eiji Aonuma getting to do everything he wanted for a sequel.
Mistwalker: StarTropics 3
EPIC: New 3rd/1st person Metroid.
RARE: Nintendo should never have let go of all those IP's. I want the cell-shaded Perfect Dark that was slated for the Gamecube!
I really like the Zelda series so my ideas are derived from and inspired by other games. I certainly would love to see so new IP's and really creative stuff.

my personal picks:
CAPCOM: Do a Nintendo vs CAPCOM title and perhaps a DMC-style Metroid
SEGA: Valkyria Chronicles x Advance Wars, Star Fox x Phantasy Star
Ganbarion: New Star Tropics
Arc System Works: Fire Emblem fighting game
About all I can think of off the top of my head

what I want... is for Nintendo to team up with level 5, Eichiro Oda (creator of One Piece), and Mitsuda (amongst others) to make a dream rpg collaboration... basically a new Dragon Quest in that Dragon Quest brought in a character designer who was the most prominent manga-ka of his time and other key talent to create a massive rpg franchise... I would love for nintendo to repeat that process... this time using Oda as character designer, level 5 as primary developers (perhaps with some assistance from monolithsoft) and other dream roles filled by key people from the rpg industry... and just start a new rpg dynasty.

but what I think they NEED to do ispartner with a major western developer on a BIG project that is a NIntendo exclusive IP... like maybe partner with rockstar for a wario/waluigi sandbox game... kind of a goofy grand theft auto

what I want... is for Nintendo to team up with level 5, Eichiro Oda (creator of One Piece), and Mitsuda (amongst others) to make a dream rpg collaboration... basically a new Dragon Quest in that Dragon Quest brought in a character designer who was the most prominent manga-ka of his time and other key talent to create a massive rpg franchise... I would love for nintendo to repeat that process... this time using Oda as character designer, level 5 as primary developers (perhaps with some assistance from monolithsoft) and other dream roles filled by key people from the rpg industry... and just start a new rpg dynasty.
but what I think they NEED to do ispartner with a major western developer on a BIG project that is a NIntendo exclusive IP... like maybe partner with rockstar for a wario/waluigi sandbox game... kind of a goofy grand theft auto

Seems like it will just be different. It's not really Zelda. It's just using the characters and settings from Zelda. Maybe we can hold out a bit of hope that there will be a bit more depth added into the game with unlocks or puzzles with Nin overseeing it, but I kind of doubt it. This is likely a way of keeping it as an exclusive. That's not entirely a bad thing. With the Zelda name to it, it might reach a larger audience than if it were just a Warriors game.

Seems like it will just be different. It's not really Zelda. It's just using the characters and settings from Zelda. Maybe we can hold out a bit of hope that there will be a bit more depth added into the game with unlocks or puzzles with Nin overseeing it, but I kind of doubt it. This is likely a way of keeping it as an exclusive. That's not entirely a bad thing. With the Zelda name to it, it might reach a larger audience than if it were just a Warriors game.

There are a few things I think Nintendo should do:
1. Collaborate to bring new IPs(like Wonderful 101) and exclusives in genre's Nintendo doesn't have a strong presence. MMOs, FPS, etc.
2. Collaborate to bring older(or forgotten) 3rd party IPs, like they are doing with Sonic and Bayo2.
3. Collaborate with 3rd parties on old/niche Nintendo IPs. Let Platinum take a crack at Starfox. Before Fast Racing Neo was announced I'd have said let Shin'en make a new F-Zero game.

A - cooperate to make a game from a genre that's already strong on nintendo's platforms like a platformer on the wii u, or an rpg on the 3ds.. a good candidate here would be square enix, atlus & ubisoft.

B - cooperate to make a game from a genre that's not-as-strong on nintendo's platforms like a shooter or a sandbox game.. a good candidate here would be sega, activison or (again) ubisoft.

C - cooperate with 3rd parties that are already going strong with nintendo like sega, capcom, disney, ubisoft etc..etc.. to make exclusives from their franchises like monhon, yakuza, sonic, rayman, star wars. (this is already happening with capcom & sega)

D - cooperate with 3rd party developers to make new games from old nintendo IPs like f-zero, advance wars, golden sun etc.. a good candidate here would be camelot, level 5, koei, sega etc..

or E, which's what i think is the best choice : nintendo cooperate with strong 3rd parties to make "clones" of most of the big multiplat games that didn't or won't come to the wii u.. for example, they can make a capcom vs tatsunoko 2 to compensate for ultra street fighter 4, make a main megaten game to compensate for persona 5, make no more heroes 3 to compensate for gta 5, make a new eternal darkness game to compensate for resident evil 6.

as for Hyrule Warriors, i really don't care for it & don't see it as anything more than a spin-off like Link's Crossbow Training.. meh.

i think either :
A - cooperate to make a game from a genre that's already strong on nintendo's platforms like a platformer on the wii u, or an rpg on the 3ds.. a good candidate here would be square enix, atlus & ubisoft.
B - cooperate to make a game from a genre that's not-as-strong on nintendo's platforms like a shooter or a sandbox game.. a good candidate here would be sega, activison or (again) ubisoft.
C - cooperate with 3rd parties that are already going strong with nintendo like sega, capcom, disney, ubisoft etc..etc.. to make exclusives from their franchises like monhon, yakuza, sonic, rayman, star wars. (this is already happening with capcom & sega)
D - cooperate with 3rd party developers to make new games from old nintendo IPs like f-zero, advance wars, golden sun etc.. a good candidate here would be camelot, level 5, koei, sega etc..
or E, which's what i think is the best choice : nintendo cooperate with strong 3rd parties to make "clones" of most of the big multiplat games that didn't or won't come to the wii u.. for example, they can make a capcom vs tatsunoko 2 to compensate for ultra street fighter 4, make a main megaten game to compensate for persona 5, make no more heroes 3 to compensate for gta 5, make a new eternal darkness game to compensate for resident evil 6.
as for Hyrule Warriors, i really don't care for it & don't see it as anything more than a spin-off like Link's Crossbow Training.. meh.

I'd like to see Nintendo try a more "mature" title with Capcom or SEGA. SEGA is always very willing to work with Nintendo as their products usually sell well, and I think a REAL collaboration between the two (not something halfassed like Mad World) could be very interesting for a mature game.

I'd like to see Nintendo try a more "mature" title with Capcom or SEGA. SEGA is always very willing to work with Nintendo as their products usually sell well, and I think a REAL collaboration between the two (not something halfassed like Mad World) could be very interesting for a mature game.

@gamer5555@Alienfish That's the exact reason I'd like to see Nintendo get involved. There wouldn't be any rough edges with them around so when the game finally hit the market it would probably get reviewed a whole lot better causing more people to buy it and a Wii U. Leave it to Ubi to flesh out that multiplayer though.